Samba Sports Youth Agenda

Preventing Crime through Healing and Play

A targeted initiative that combined sport with trauma healing sessions helped adolescent boys resist drug abuse and crime.

Petty crime, gangs and drug abuse are common problems in coastal Kenya because of unemployment and the allures they provide to disaffected young men and boys.

The project launched by Samba Sports Youth Agenda – a youth-led CSO who use sports to engage with young people – integrated trauma-healing sessions and awareness-raising activities with football to provide an informal, safe environment to discuss these difficult issues.

They wanted to ensure that parents and teachers were as much a part of the process as the young people themselves, and invited them as well as local County representatives, to attend the football tournament.